1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communication systems, and in particular, to providing a simulation of a length of communication media to a service provider.
2. Description of the Prior Art
High-bandwidth communications are becoming customary for both businesses and residences. Customers are requesting more bandwidth from service providers to satisfy their communication needs. Thus, service providers are continually searching for methods and systems to supply the higher bandwidths to their customers.
Many customers are connected to a service provider with copper wiring. The portion of the public network between the phone company and the customer is referred to as the local loop or the “last mile”. The local loop often creates bottlenecks for service providers to provide high bandwidth to its customers. One way to overcome the bottleneck of the local loop is to transmit data over a high frequency signal. One example of a service that transmits data over a high frequency signal is Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service.
One problem is the high frequency signals can be more susceptible to distortion from conditions existing on the local loop. The distance from the service provider can affect a high-frequency signal more significantly than a low frequency signal. Unterminated bridge taps can adversely affect a high frequency signal while not significantly affecting a low frequency signal. A bridge tap is any unterminated portion of a loop not in the direct talking path. Bridge taps are often connected to a length of wire where the wire is not terminated. The unterminated wire, also called the unterminated bridge tap, can act as a tuning stub to high frequency signals. Therefore, unterminated bridge taps and other conditions can affect some types of service. For example, all loading coils and bridge taps should be removed from copper cabling in a local loop before DSL services can be provided. Therefore, service providers may find it advantageous to simulate certain conditions that may affect service.
The use of high-bandwidth technology is often aided by modeling and simulating the local loop. Without the ability to simulate the local loop and a customer premises, service providers may miss opportunities to access potential customers. Also, service providers may not have a cost effective way to determine a quality of service (QoS) for current or potential customers.
Service providers currently use simulators that simulate conditions that could affect communications from the service provider over the local loop. The simulators are generally fixed circuits that apply a load to service provider signals to simulate the effects of customer premises devices, wire lines, bridge taps, and other conditions. Fixed circuits mean that the components that make up the circuits have fixed values. For instance, a resistor has a fixed resistance, an inductor has a fixed inductance, and a capacitor has a fixed capacitance. This is in contrast to variable components. Variable components are components that can be tuned to accommodate different needs. Examples of variable components are variable resistors, variable inductors, and variable capacitors.
Each simulator is a separate circuit with the current systems. For instance, the customer premises device simulator, the wire line simulator, and the bridge tap simulator are all separate circuits. These separate circuits are connected to simulate multiple configurations. If the service provider wants to simulate a complex configuration, then many different circuits have to be connected together. Unfortunately, the multiple circuits and multiple connections can become cumbersome and undesired for the service provider.
The current wire line simulators are fixed circuits that simulate a fixed length of wire. For instance, a wire line simulator could simulate 1,000 feet of copper wire. Multiple wire line simulators are connected in series to simulate longer lengths of wire. Also, bridge tap simulators are fixed circuits that simulate a fixed length of wire connected to a bridge tap. Unfortunately, the fixed-circuit simulators can only approximate conditions of a local loop. The fixed-circuit simulators are not tunable and consequently may not be able to simulate conditions that service providers desire.